President Paul opened the meeting with a minutes silence remembering Faith Butt and the victims in Spain.
Paul reported on the last board meeting.
Graham Burmeister gave a heartfelt eulogy remembering Faith Butt.
Phil Mcintosh gave a quick update on the Gears and Beers. He welcomed Wagga Motors as a major sponsor of the event. Phil was looking for help with some jobs in the week leading up to the event looking after sponsors and reminded us to like and share the posts on the facebook page.
Secretary David Benn advised next weeks meeting is a club assembly, and for members to raise any issues by email to the board by Friday this week. David asked for the non eaters list to be updated and for members to apologise in a timely manner to reduce the meal costs.
John Hawkins Rotary Information
John reported on the importance to Rotary of raising literacy standards across communities and the programs rotary is involved in.
Rotary members make amazing things happen, like:
Opening schools: In Afghanistan, Rotary members opened a girls’ school to break the cycle of poverty and social imbalance.
Teaching adults to read: Rotary members in the United States partnered with ProLiteracy Detroit to recruit and train tutors after a study showed that more than half of the local adult population was functionally illiterate.
New teaching methods: The SOUNS program in South Africa, Puerto Rico and the United States teaches educators how to improve literacy by teaching children to recognize letters by sounds instead of names.
Making schools healthy: Rotarians are providing clean, fresh water to every public school in Lebanon so students can be healthier and get a better education.
When you teach somebody how to read, they have that for a lifetime. It ripples through the community, one by one.Mark Wilson
Rotary Club member
Welcome new member Chris O'Sullivan
President Paul Milde, Sponsor Gerry Gerlach and new member Chris O'Sullivan
Paul and Gerry gave a warm welcome to our newest member Chris, who was looking forward to meeting all members and getting involved with the club and our projects.
Sergeant Peter Crozier
Peter extracted many dollars and increased the misery of flue sufferers, the Luftwagga, and James Ross for pulling down the Uranquinty rail bridge.
Guest Speaker - Mayor of Wagga Wagga Greg Conkey
Greg gave a quick update on council matters including;
Levee upgrade starting stage 1 in October 2017 which upgrades flowerdale and copland street levees and stage 2 connecting these two sections to be completed by December 2018.
The Equex Multi purpose stadium has been approved and the $9 million project is being tendered now. It will include 3 indoor netball courts and space for 3000 people.
The intermodal freight link at bomen is proceeding through planning stages. Roadworks for the approaches to bomen are currently being completed.Visy is looking to open stage two of their facilities at tumut and could be a big part of the freight link.
A Fast Rail Proposal is being advanced by a private group to build a new city at henty. WWCC favours a route that includes stops in albury and wagga. The federal government is funding the rail link from Melbourne to Brisbane for up to $10b - $8b on tunnels into Brisbane.
Tenders are being sought for the eunony bridge replacement.
Some land at Bomen has been rezoned into larger residential blocks but land closer to Teys Facilities has been reserved as a buffer zone.
The Harness Racing facilitiy has expanded to be major industry track with the project worth $11m.
No progress on the Northern Lake - no licence available for the water.
Lake Albert will be filled from improved flows from creeks to the east and a proposed weir at ohalloran park.
The major truck bypass is being studied.